In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 5:16

Monday, April 13, 2020

COVID-19 and the Dangerous Media

I saw this post on facebook and thought it was worth sharing.  There seems to be some confusion and misinformation out there, mainly from the Media, and here is a current summary of the findings.  Again, thanks go to the media misinformation:

THE RULES:
1. Basically, you can't leave the house for any reason, but if you have to, then you can.
2. Masks are useless, but maybe you have to wear one, it can save you, it is useless, but maybe it is mandatory as well.
3. Stores are closed, except those that are open.
4. You should not go to hospitals unless you have to go there. Same applies to doctors, you should only go there in case of emergency, provided you are not too sick.
5. This virus is deadly but still not too scary, except that sometimes it actually leads to a global disaster.
6. Gloves won't help, but they can still help.
7. Everyone needs to stay HOME, but it's important to GO OUT.
8. There is no shortage of groceries in the supermarket, but there are many things missing when you go there in the evening, but not in the morning. Sometimes.
9. The virus has no effect on children except those it affects.
10. Animals are not affected, but there is still a cat that tested positive in Belgium in February when no one had been tested, plus a few tigers here and there…
11. You will have many symptoms when you are sick, but you can also get sick without symptoms, have symptoms without being sick, or be contagious without having symptoms. Oh, my..
12. In order not to get sick, you have to eat well and exercise, but eat whatever you have on hand and it's better not to go out, well, but no…
13. It's better to get some fresh air, but you get looked at very wrong when you get some fresh air, and most importantly, you don't go to parks or walk. But don’t sit down, except that you can do that now if you are old, but not for too long or if you are pregnant (but not too old).
14. You can't go to retirement homes, but you have to take care of the elderly and bring food and medication.
15. If you are sick, you can't go out, but you can go to the pharmacy.
16. You can get restaurant food delivered to the house, which may have been prepared by people who didn't wear masks or gloves. But you have to have your groceries decontaminated outside for 3 hours. Pizza too?
17. Every disturbing article or disturbing interview starts with " I don't want to trigger panic, but…"
18. You can't see your older mother or grandmother, but you can take a taxi and meet an older taxi driver.
19. You can walk around with a friend but not with your family if they don't live under the same roof.
20. You are safe if you maintain the appropriate social distance, but you can’t go out with friends or strangers at the safe social distance.
21. The virus remains active on different surfaces for two hours, no, four, no, six, no, we didn't say hours, maybe days? But it takes a damp environment. Oh no, not necessarily.
22. The virus stays in the air - well no, or yes, maybe, especially in a closed room, in one hour a sick person can infect ten, so if it falls, all our children were already infected at school before it was closed. But remember, if you stay at the recommended social distance, however in certain circumstances you should maintain a greater distance, which, studies show, the virus can travel further, maybe.
23. We count the number of deaths but we don't know how many people are infected as we have only tested so far those who were "almost dead" to find out if that's what they will die of…
24. We have no treatment, except that there may be one that apparently is not dangerous unless you take too much (which is the case with all medications). Orange man bad.
25. We should stay locked up until the virus disappears, but it will only disappear if we achieve collective immunity, so when it circulates… but we must no longer be locked up for that?

I thought this was funny too, BUT yet, it struck something in me.  We may think this is all funny but our entire nation has shut-down and millions are out of work and what are we doing about it?

My parents met after World War II (my dad literally bombed my mom’s homeland during the war and then was stationed there after the war). My mom was a young girl when Hitler rose to power. She was required to join the Hitler Youth, life was hard to say the least, and she even had a sister who was arrested and sent to a concentration camp for helping German men desert from the fighting.  My mom lived through a living hell that most people have only read about.

I share this because I remember asking her when I was a child, “Mom, why didn’t people leave when they heard what was starting to happen? Surely they heard of the terrible things going on."
She said to me, “Suzanne, you don’t leave everything you own because of a rumor.”My takeaway, look how people have changed in just the last 75 years; again, this was my mom's reality, not a grandmother or some unknown person who wrote into a history book. We have shut everything down, on a rumor, a rumor of fear.

We, as a people, have become very compliant; good “sheep” today, aren’t we?  We are allowing the government (states and national level) to shut down our private businesses, all of our schools, our hair salons, nail salons, restaurants, fitness centers, entertainment, ... (all of this in the land of the free and the home of the brave); everything that someone decided was "non-essential".  Even our doctors and dentists can't do "non-emergency" procedures.  Not very free and I certainly don't call this brave. Everything shut down.  Why?  Because of rumors of people dying.


Mind you, we call our rumors other things; we use fancy words like projections, mathematical models, curves, but they were all based on information, we mainly got from a government (China) that lies about it's people and to it's people and even kills the "whistle-blowers" who possibly could have created and/or released this virus  in the first place and then, don't forget, we receive most of this information filtered through a media (who are all owned by six foreign owned companies) who hates our current president and our nation.  Sure. Makes perfect sense, just like the list above about the "rules" we should live by.

Fear is a powerful ruler.
Father, may we find you in these days being “shut in”. Speak to us. May we have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. What are we to do?  Let's start with, 2 Chronicles 7:14.  Repent. Turn from our wicked ways. God heals our land.  March 18th, 2020 was the last normal day in America... and then things began to shift.  Today is the 28th day of this "lock-down" - do you think people are ready to repent?

Lord, we don't need revival; we need reformation.